King Cricket

December 31, 2010 Australia

Australia’s batsmen in the 2010 Ashes

2 minute readLet us say that we don’t actually think that Australia’s batsmen are all that bad. They are good players playing badly, which is slightly different. Batsmen under pressure are exposed more than bowlers because they don’t get second chances. You do something stupid that gets you out and that’s your

December 30, 2010 Australia

Australia’s captain and spinners

2 minute readThe more we think about it, the more these two things go hand-in-hand. The situation was this. Nathan Hauritz got the boot because he got wellied in India like just about every other spinner who ever goes over there. Demented selections ensued. Maybe Hauritz offended Ricky Ponting by suggesting that

December 30, 2010 Australia

Australia’s Ashes team – an English perspective on what went wrong

< 1 minute readAs an Englishman in his thirties, there’s nothing we don’t know about pointing out a team’s flaws after it’s failed to win the Ashes. Might as well put our skills to more joyous use this year. Today, captaincy and spin bowling. Tomorrow, batting and pace bowling.

December 29, 2010 England

England cricketers’ Ashes sprinkler celebration

< 1 minute readThis is another good way of celebrating the retention of the Ashes. If you don’t know about ‘the sprinkler’, it’s become the England cricketers’ official dance of the tour. It’s a stupid dance and they’re all awful at it, but you can’t help but warm to them even more when

December 29, 2010 Regulars

The only way to celebrate an Ashes win

< 1 minute readYou’ve got to pull out all the stops at a time like this. So here’s a Venn diagram made by someone else: Never let it be said that we don’t make the effort. Thanks Ged.

December 28, 2010 England

Tim Bresnan is two players in one

< 1 minute readMore specifically, Tim Bresnan, England’s fifth-choice seamer, is Ben Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle rolled into one. Bresnan has the fitness, pace and accuracy of Siddle. He also bowls away swing with the new ball and reverse swing later on like Ben Hilfenhaus. Oh, and he can bat. Bresnan’s reputation as

December 27, 2010 England

Jonathan Trott – unarsed England number three

< 1 minute readGenerally being unarsed about stuff is a fantastic quality for a Test batsman to have. Jonathan Trott’s got it in spades. You can have all the shots and the best hand-eye co-ordination, but if you wobble when things don’t go perfectly, you’ll never make it as a Test batsman, because

December 27, 2010 Australia

Ricky Ponting talking to the umpires

< 1 minute readWhinging Poms? Has the world ever seen a whingier cricketer than Ricky Thomas Ponting? Sport needs a bit of ‘us and them’ so that you can enjoy it properly, so it was perversely enjoyable to see Ponting spend three-quarters of an hour bending Aleem Dar’s ear. As he stamped his

December 26, 2010 Uncategorised

A Boxing Day Test thank you letter

< 1 minute readDear Father Christmas, Thanks for all the presents you brought us. You really outdid yourself. We know we’ve been good this year, but some of the things you got us were just plain ridiculous. Thanks for the house. We’re not sure we need quite that many bedrooms and we really

December 25, 2010 Uncategorised

Boxing Day Test through the night thread

< 1 minute readAh, the magic of WordPress scheduling – giving anyone interested a Boxing Day Test post on which to comment without the author having to interrupt his Christmas drinking. We wrote this in advance because Coachhouse’s Posthorn will have got the better of us by now. We’re staying away from the